Mamata Banerjee Welcomes Akhilesh Yadav-Mayawati Alliance In UP

When bitter rivals-turned-friends Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati announced a partnership in Uttar Pradesh to take on the BJP in the 2019 general elections this morning, they received support from another regional powerhouse - West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Trinamool Congress chief tweeted: "I welcome the alliance of the SP and the BSP for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections."

Ms Banerjee, who has been a loud critique of the BJP, has been touring the country over the last one year trying to build an opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Ms Banerjee had earlier suggested that a Samajwadi Party-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh would wipe out the BJP from the state that sends 80 lawmakers to the lower house of parliament.

BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Saturday, in Lucknow, announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each out of the state's 80 parliamentary constituencies.

The parties kept the Congress out of the alliance, but said they will not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.